Focused Rose rallies for victory

DORAL, Fla. — Justin Rose expected a moment like this, posing on the 18th green of the famed Blue Monster at Doral with a World Golf Championship trophy in his hands.

It’s the rest of the script that made Sunday so surprising.

The biggest charge came from emerging star Rory McIlroy, eight shots behind until he crept within one of the lead late in the round.

The early departure came from Tiger Woods, who muddied his Masters future by limping off the course after 11 holes with soreness in the left Achilles tendon.

Bubba Watson went from a collapse on the front nine, when he lost his three-shot lead in four holes, to a clutch shot on the final hole when he hit a bullet of a 4-iron out of the palm trees to 9 feet from the cup that put one last scare into Rose.

All that drama, and Rose didn’t realize he had won until he was on the practice range and heard nothing.

Watson missed the birdie putt.

Rose closed with a 2-under 70, a score he didn’t think would be good enough to win. Ultimately, all he knew about — or cared about — was winning the Cadillac Championship.

“I’ve been very focused on seeing this whole Florida swing as like a body of work, and not really trying to put too much focus on any individual tournament,” he said.

“I kind of knew I was playing well, and if I just kept out of my own way for the most part and kept thinking well and doing the right things, I had a feeling something good might happen.

“For this little beauty to show up on my mantle place so early in the season,” he added, pointed to the blue trophy beside him, “definitely is a fantastic feeling. It sets up a very exciting year.”

It was a day of endless drama at Doral.

Sergio Garcia hit four balls into the water at the par-4 third hole and made a 12.

Paul Casey made a hole-in-one on the 13th hole. Rose had to make up a three-shot deficit on Watson at the start of the round, and when he made the turn, he found himself two shots behind PGA champion Keegan Bradley, who then shot 41 on the back nine.

Through so much commotion, Rose never felt steadier.

He seized control with a 52-degree wedge that settled 5 feet away from the hole for a birdie on the 14th that gave him a two-shot lead. He closed with a bogey from the back bunker on the 18th, but not before watching his sand shot roll off the green and trickle toward the water, though never in serious danger of going in.

“It was all about controlling what I could control,” said Rose, who finished with a16-under 272 and earned $1.4 million. “I kind of knew I got into the lead — it’s hard to ignore it out there. And from there, I knew it was just a matter of closing it out.”

Watson didn’t hit a fairway on the front nine and did well to shoot 39. He bounced back with birdies, and gave himself an unlikely chance at a playoff with a remarkable shot, one of many he hit at Doral this week.